"India is an important growth engine for IBM
20 October 1999
Recently global IT industry pioneer and giant IBM took full control of its joint venture with the Tata group. Tata IBM Ltd is now IBM India Ltd. So how does IBM look at India now? To find out, domain-B's R Ramasubramoni had a chat with IBM's Vishwesh Padmanabhan, vice president, software and solution developer marketing, IBM India, Joaquin E Quintos IV, general manager, software, Asean/South Asia and Hwang Kuo Wei, manager, software solutions, Asean/South Asia software. Click here to read more about them.
domain-B: Can you tell us something about IBM's new focus, perspectives and plans now that IBM India is a full subsidiary of IBM?
Padmanabhan: Basically there is no change, internally or externally. But as we enter the Indian market as a subsidiary, we find that the Indian market has great potential. We are very bullish about the Indian market, which, along with China, is now a significant growth engine for IBM.
We are keen to develop solution partnership centres for expertise in core areas like database technology, java-based software and voice interaction technology. Other key areas include java certification, hardware certification for our Netfinity platform of servers, where we certify solutions that run on Netfinity servers. While we offer our solutions development centre for software vendors and developers to enable them to develop solutions with IBM software, support and services, we also extend this facility to non-IBM platforms like HP's UX, Solaris, etc., and we expect to increase this business.
Now that we have launched our India operations, our next aim is to expand our coverage of the market and leverage local capabilities and talent for the Asean region as a whole.
domain-B: IBM has a stated focus on e-commerce. What is the worldwide trend here, according to you, and what do you see happening in India?
Quintos: Worldwide, start-ups have done well in web hosting, web-based training and e-commerce, and we expect this success to continue. Traditional businesses are now using technology to 'e-businnessise' themselves.
Padmanabhan: Indian companies are increasingly getting on the net. They are seeing the net as a means of increasing contact and reaching out to customers, cutting costs and streamlining processes into and out of the company -- including suppliers and customers. It's not just large companies -- even small and medium companies, and government organisations like the road transport, passport, and external affairs departments are getting into the act.
Now a lot depends on government regulations and the legal framework. Once the proper regulations are in place the growth will be staggering. There will be sudden expansion for web hosting, solution developers and vendors.
In India the other market that will develop is software development, both for the domestic market and for exports. India has a unique chance to use its software resources to be a provider of e-business solutions, training and skills based on Internet technology. This will be a direct fallout of the development of the e-business market in India.
domain-B: Can you tell us something about IBM's enterprise computing and business intelligence solutions? What do you feel about the Indian market in this area?
Quintos: Let me tell you first about the importance of business intelligence and what brings us here to India. Business intelligence becomes important in the context of liberalisation or globalisation, whatever you may call it. When you have foreign players competing in what becomes a unified global market, the trend is towards increasing computerisation for greater efficiency, in the face of this global competition. This and the medium of Internet are forcing businesses to understand the customer and the market better, build better and newer products and use better methods.
That brings in concepts like CRM, or customer relationship management, profitability analysis, fraud detection, churn analysis, inventory management, asset-liability management, and so on. All this constitutes business intelligence, and the challenge is of data availability and leveraging on it. It is about using technology to gain business leverage, leverage IT to process data to gain meaningful insights, using sophisticated tools to do deeper analysis.
It requires a different business model, using IT extensively to analyse customer knowledge data. It is about growing stronger inwardly by looking externally.
IBM has the technology to offer solutions across different kinds of platforms -- be it legacy systems or client server architecture on any RDBMS platform. We have worked with clients who have stored data on old systems or even on hard copies in files. In India, that is a blessing in disguise. There is no baggage of legacy systems.
IBM has a great deal of business intelligence engagements in India and all over the world. We have worked with large, medium and small clients like Tisco, NIC, etc., on these solutions. Since business intelligence uses both hardware- and software-related technology and talent, India has a good advantage with its software talent. This gives IBM in India a great advantage in terms of business intelligence solutions. Of course, India is one of the high growth markets ready for take-off.
domain-B: Now you find that all business solutions tend towards and lead to the web. Obviously databases are central to any business solution. Here we have Oracle doing that (leading to the web) with its 8i RDBMS. What about IBM's DB/2 database in this regard?
Hwang: Yes, databases form a central part of the business solution. IBM has the DB/2 family of database solutions for all needs -- even those that run on handheld devices and mobile devices, and now also on the Linux platform.
The DB/2 OLAP server represents a different dimension of database and allows multi-dimensional analysis of data. The DB/2 miner is another interesting flavour of this database. While it performs the traditional database function, it also finds hidden relationships and patterns, and brings out clusters of related data.
The DB/2 universal database can run Internet and e-business applications easily and integrate traditional operational data with multimedia images, sounds, etc. It also offers Java support. In fact, compared to Oracle, DB/2 has better integration at the back end. For DB/2 the integration is at the database engine level while for Oracle it is at the application program level, one level away. (Engine level integration gives better speed and control with applications.) In fact, traditional RDBMSs will not fulfil the requirements of the Internet and will need to be revamped.
domain-B: Do you mean the current database technology falls short of requirements? Why do you say so?
Hwang: The original database designs started about twenty years ago with simple database and spreadsheet applications, and were based on the IBM design. Then came relational databases, which were able to use character, text and numeric data types. But the growth in Internet and multimedia technology requires a database to be able to use other data types also.
In general RDBMSs are not capable of handling data types like voice, video and multimedia and support for Java. They do not allow us to process and use these data types. IBM has a project named 'Starburst' at its San Jose centre in the US to revamp database technology, and this technology is now incorporated in DB/2. This technology is called Object RDBMS. At a functional level, however, it is very similar to the earlier one.
domain-B: IBM has introduced solutions for the Linux platform. Is that an acknowledgement of Linux's position? Do you see it spearheading a movement for free software?
Padmanabhan: That users are preferring Linux is obvious. In fact, it had the highest adoption rate last year in terms of new users. So Linux as an operating platform cannot be ignored. Now that it has become a customer requirment to offer solutions in Linux, and since we have a commitment to offer solutions to the customer, Linux too finds a place in our activities.
But if you are looking at free software as a movement, there are some questions that need to be looked at -- the basic product, product-related features like scalability, software service, and so on.
Vishwesh Padmanabhan is responsible for marketing and distribution of IBM software products, development of independent software vendors, and management of the IBM solutions partnership centre, which facilitates application development using IBM software. Mr Padmanabhan, a graduate in commerce and law from the University of South Australia and an MBA in public administration, joined IBM in 1984. He began with the banking and finance group of IBM Australia and went on to become channels manager for AS/400 and RS/6000 servers and product manager for AS/400 in Australia/ New Zealand.
He was on the core team that set up IBM software marketing in Australia and was regional head, software sales and operations, IBM Asean / South Asia and country manager, software, IBM Malaysia, before moving to India.
Joaquin E Quintos IV manages and runs IBM's software business unit across nine countries in the Asean region. Before his current appointment, Mr Quintos headed the S/390, storage and printers division for Asean / South Asia. Mr Quintos has been with IBM for 15 years. He joined the company as a system engineer in 1982 and has since held various management positions in hardware, software industry solutions marketing as well as management and technology consulting. He was also responsible for starting up the software and services business line in Philippines during his stint as account services manager.
Mr Quintos worked with the San Miguel Corporation as a systems and procedure analyst in the materials management and requirements planning department. He graduated from the University of Philippines in Industrial Engineering.
Also present was Hwang Kuo Wei, manager, software solutions, Asean / South Asia software.
